OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 43A ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 3, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - Part 43. A notes by S. Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Cleveland and the Carriage Industry Though Cleveland was never home to massive wagon and carriage factories, it nevertheless possessed large numbers of smaller firms producing almost every type of horse drawn vehicle for local and regional markets. More significatly it was home to some of the largest manufactors and wholesalers of wagon and carriage parts in the U.S. The widespread national distribution of these goods was one of the cities most important contributions to a leading industry. Lack of suitable roads in the early community restricted wheeled vehicles to the occasional ox-drawn farm cart and freight wagon, most of which were the products of local farmers and blacksmiths. By 1820 there was a wagon maker located on the public square in Cleveland, and it was not long before improved roads, expanded commerce, and a growing population, created a demand to support a small number of local vehicle builders. Wagon and carriage manufacture was characterized by small shops consisting of journeymen and apprentices working under the auspices of a master craftsman. Most vehicles were normally built to order, though some common types were built ahead to meet an anticipated sale or demand. The work involved little or no machinery and progressed at a slow but steady pace of hand tools and imaginative methods. As elsewhere, Cleveland's trade came to be dominated by skilled foreign born craftsmen, particularly the Germans. Large numbers of these immigrants, many skilled in various trades, began settling into the region in the 1830's and 1840's, establishing a marked presence in crafts such as horse drawn vehicle manufacture. [ I remember riding in one -- down hill-- without the horse-- but that's another story for another day.] Augmenting their numbers with fresh arrivals of skilled immigrants and passing down their trade and their shops to their sons, German craftsmen retained their hold on Cleveland's wagon and carriage trades until its demise early in the twentieth century. One of the first substantial wagon and carriage shops in the city, was that was owned by Jacob Lowman. He had come to Cleveland from Maryland in the early 1830's. Making his shop on Seneca (W.3rd), and soon became the largest wagon and carriage maker in town. One of his early journeyman was a prussian born gentleman by the name of John Drumm, who soon established his own shop, nearby Jacob Lowman's. They were soon joined by others such as Peter Black, a german who came to Cleveland in the 1830's and became sucessful in the carriage making also. By the middle of the 1840's, the community was met by 5 shops, with the number up to about 10, by the time of the Civil War. The majority were located near the center of town in the non-residential district south of Superior and the Public Square. Although the expansion of the city saw the spread of shops across the urban landscape. Usually along with these shops were the local blacksmith's and harness makers. Some of these wagons could be rented for a outing along the local shops or for a ride along the local square. Though the process of change had begun by mid century it was the postwar period which saw American horse drawn vehicle manufacures make their first substancial moves away from craft methods. Readily available steam power, increasing sophisticated wood and metalworking machinery, and the application of factory principles, marked the transforation of the trade into a full fledged industry. While hand work and traditional craftsman continued to play an important part, they increasingly took a back seat to machine production and a carefully calculated division of labor. Midwestern vehicle makers were particularly well poised advantage of this shift because of the proximity to abundant timber and iron ore, regional leadership in iron and steel production, the prolific output of midwestern machine and tool makers, and a growing pool of skilled and unskilled labor. Cleveland's wagon and carriage trade soon reflected many of these trends in the power and machinery appearing on the work floor and in the growth in number and size of the firms themselves. The postwar period saw the first significant increase in Cleveand's vehicle manufacturing sector; in 1870 there were 16 separate firms, but just 6 years later the total jumped to nearly fifty. Some had early roots, others entirely new. William Gabriel set up a shop in Cleveland in 1850 and gradually brought his sons into the business; when they took over after his death in 1877 the shop had been producing a wide range of wagons and carriages for many years. Bavarian born Jacob Hoffman established a simular shop sometime in the 1860's; he too became a locally prominent builder. John Green began as a St.Louis carriage maker before moving to Cleveland in the early 1870's. He was one of the first in Cleveland to open a carriage repository. [ the equivalent of a automobile showroom. ] Gustav Schaefer was a german born wagon maker who came to Cleveland just after the Civil War. After work at a stone quarrying, barrel making, and in various local wagon and carriage shops, he realized the dream of owning his own firm in 1880. Though he began by producing many different styles of horse-drawn vehicles, he eventually specialized in heavy drays and wagons. Jacob Rush also came from Germany to Cleveland and opened a blacksmith and wagon shop in 1853. Jacob died in 1862 leaving his business to his son Charles. Charles achieved early success in the manufacture of ice wagons. [one of which received a bronze medal at the Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.] In 1864, he took on Charles E. Lang as a partner and expanded his output to include many kinds of carriages for the luxury market. Rauch & Lang broughams, victorias, and opera busses routinely saw use by the local elite and helped ensure their place as the single best remembered carriage maker. The 1870's and 1880's saw the rise of enormous wagon and carriage factories which began mass producing inexpensive vehicles for the wholesale market. Though they soon spread to other parts of the country, this style of manufacture originated in Cincinnati and remained prevelent in several other midwestern cities. While Cleveland never hosted large wholesale vehicle factories, it was home to some of the world's largest producers of wagon and carriage parts which became vital to carriage shops and factories of all sizes. Widespread application of machinery and factory principles from mid century onward had encouraged the separate manufacture of nearly every part used in the construction of a typical wagon or carriage. Cleveland's proximity to raw materials, labor, and excellant shipping facilities made it an ideal location for such specialty manufacturrs, dozens of whom were established here by the early manufacturers of the earliest carriages. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Real Estate The history of real estate development in Cleveland is a story of property owners who speculated on the economic future of the city and anticipated the effect of growth upon property values in different locations. They attempted to subdivide or allot, the land into the best configuration of building lots to supply these lots with the necessary improvements, and to promote the project to protential buyers; all in competition with one another and with the threat of periodic bank panics looming over them. Whenevr possible they endeavered to get a governmental entity to pay costs of new roads, bridges, canals, railroads, parks, industries, or public buldings and sometimes held public office to ensure the success of their ventures. During the two centuries of Cleveland's history the opportunities for real estate profits changed and as a response there were changes in the kinds of allotments that were brought into the market and an increasing profesionalism of the real estate profession. But the ability to anticipate or manipulate events to increase real estate values has been constant throughout various periods of Cleveland's growth. The first major period of real estate development was the creation of Cleveland and the Western Reserve by the proprietors of the Connecticut Land Co. at the close of the 18th century. Cleveland and the Connecticut Western Reserve have, from their inception been parts of a gigantic speculation in land; first by King Charles ll, who gave all the lands extending to the Pacific Ocean to the first settlers of Connecticut, in exchange for a former foothold for his Empire; and later by the Connecticut Land Co. proprietors, who invested $1,200,000 in the expectation that the lands along Lake Eries southern shore would make them fortunes. Such fortunes would have to come from the cutting up of the Reserve's 3 million acres into smaller parcels that could be sold at a profit to the land hungry settlers flooding the Trans-Appalachian frontier now that the British restrictions had been lifted by American independence. There were many competing areas of settlement, however, in the Northwest Territory, and to attract settlers to the Western Reserve the Connecticut Land Co. proprietors had to offer assurances that the settler's investments would be protected from legal problems. economic stagnation, or military harm. They wanted prospective eastern settlers viewing a map to feel that the Reserve was a proper Yankee village surrounded by a good system of roads and agricultural lands. Therefore, the original surveys and maps of Cleveland were a marketing tool for the land speculators in Connecticut. These speculators, however, were not a unified body, nor were they long term investment partners. Rather they were a group of competing speculators who were forced into a temporary alliance by the size of the purchase and the State of Connecticut's insistance thet the Reserve be sold as a single entity. Once the company acquired title to the Reserve, immediate steps were taken to make a fair distribution of the 3 million acres to the dozens of investors, leaving them free to settle or begin selling lots to settlers in competition with one another. The first summer after purchasing the Reserve, the company dispatched its general agent, Moses Cleaveland, and a party of surveyors to the Reserve. Part of his team began surveying the township lines, beginning at the Pennsylvania border and working west. Meanwhile, he took the rest of the party to the mouth of the Cuyahoga and began to lay out Cleveand. Beginning with a traditional New England green -- today's public square-- they mapped out the streets running at right angles in a gridiron pattern and of blocks divided into lots of 2 acres each. The following summer, 1797, another surveying party was sent to the Reserve and added to the emerging pattern of roads and property lines. The effect of these two summers was to create a town that contained 3 categories of lots, by size, and a radial street plan leading into the gridiron environs of today's downtown area. In the area surrounding the village center at Public Square were the " in lots " or " two acre lots." which were the realm of residential and commercial life in traditional New England villages. Bordering them were the " out lots " or " ten acre lots" whic were primarily for more rural, agrarian uses and which increased in size with distance from Public Square. Finally the " hundred Acre lots " were left available for further splitting into farms or satellite villages, simular to the larger townships. The reason for this elaborate pattern of streets and lots was because Cleveland, unlike most of the townships, was slated for immediate sale to settlers to help defray the costs of the surveys. However, sales were slow as the malarial conditions near the river, the high prices set on Cleveland lots, and the availability of cheaper lands in the eastern part of the Reserve, combined to delay settlement. During the early decades of the 19th century, growth proceeded at a faster pace in some of the surrounding villages, such as Newburgh, and in Rockport two groups of proprietors failed in their attempts to establish speculative town sites on opposite banks of the Rocky River. For many years the Reserve suffered from too much available land and a weak local economy. Cash was scarce and the proprietors found their costs of holding land were rising faster than land values. The opening of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1827, which established a vigorous commercial economy and accelerated land values locally, marked the beginning of the second major period in Cleveland's real estate history, which extended until the Civil War. By 1827 the original city lots, east of the Cuyahoga, had passed into private hands and were being developed on a piecemeal basis by individual owners. One noteable development was an attempt to establish a luxurious residential community along Lake street, east of Erie Street ( East ninth street ). In 1835, Lee Canfield and Sheldon Pease donated a small park. Clinton Park, to be the centerpiece of their new Clinton Square real estate development. This was the first attempt in Cleveland to support land values in a residential subdivision project by donating a park-- at least since the Connecticut Land Co. did something simualr with Public Square. The project failed in the panic of 1837 and the arrival of the Cleveland and Erie Railroad destroyed the ambiance of the area. The modest attempt to create a community and anchor values to public improvements paled beside what was occurring on the west side of the river. Here groups of investors were bringing nearly 2,000 new building lots onto the market, supported by a massive public works program, in an effort to attract industry and residents. The centerpiece of the movement was the incorporation of the village of Ohio City in 1836 and the attempt to extend the Canl to a new terminus nearby. The old bed of the Cuyahoga River, which forms Whiskey Island, would be again connected to the river, and with the canal traffic would make Ohio City a harbor town, complete with a hotel. The first plans for building lots appeared in 1831, following the purchase of the Carter farm by investors from Buffalo and Brooklyn, and the unsurveyed lots sold for good prices. Immediately to the south, in 1836, the real estate firm of Lord and Barber developed a new residential subdivision of nearly 1,000 building lots centering on their beautiful Franklin Circle park. The Wooster Turnpike -- in 1824 the first toll road in Cuyahoga County-- led traffic up to their development along today's Rte 42, and in 1840 they donated land for a farmers' market. They also created the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Co. to provide jobs. Josiah Barber and Richard Lord were both surveyors of Ohio City and were in the postion to shape development on this side of the river. The village of Cleveland did not ignore the challenge from the Ohio City promoters and responded by trying to hinder their economic vitality. In the ealy 1830's a group of Cleveland boosters -- which included a village president Richard Hilliard and one of Clevelands city mayors John W. Willey, as well as John S. Clark and Edmund Clark -- created 2 new subdivisions. In 1835 they created Cleveand Centre ( placed in the first big bend of the river, soutwest of Public Square ), noteworthy for it radical design evoking L'Enfant's plan for Washington, DC. Immediately to the south, across the river, the group created Willeyville in 1836, and connected it with Wooster's turnpike to the south and Cleveland Centre to the north with a bridge at Columbia street. The Wiley administration also closed the floating bridge aross the river further north. The net result was to drain off north-bound traffic before it reached Ohio City and direct it through Willeyville, over the Columbus street bridge, through Cleveland Centre and on to their market at the foot of Superior street before reaching Cleveland. This resulted in the " Bridge War " between the two cities and a rivalry that lasted until Ohio City was annexed by Cleveland in 1854. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Real Estate Continued in Tid Bits -- part 43B.